'The Lying Game' Recap: 'When We Dead Awaken'

Season 1, Episode 12, “When We Dead Awaken” begins with Emma, Ethan and Thayer discussing the threatening note Emma received. Emma is concerned and frightened by the “Keep on being Sutton…or you’re next,” message written on the scrap of paper that was anonymously sent to her. Ethan and Thayer, however, both believe that Sutton is behind the threat in an effort to start up one of her infamous lying games. Thayer adds that the white package with a black bow the note came in was always Sutton’s signature. Emma, unaware of how Sutton’s lying games work, asks how to get her twin to stop the madness.

“The only way to win a lying game is not to play,” Thayer answered.

The next morning, Emma talks to Sutton’s parents about the car incident, in which she and Ethan took the responsibility of driving the Mercers’ car into the ocean, despite it being Sutton’s fault. Emma does not want to be having the conversation and an S.O.S text from Char allows her to excuse herself and head over to the Chamberlain residence.

When Emma arrives, Mads explains that she and Char have been at Char’s house all morning cleaning up after Char’s alcoholic-mess of a mother, Phyllis. Char is inside the house arguing with her mother.

At school, Laurel questions why Emma was so quick to leave the house this morning. Emma dismisses her adoptive-sister’s question and marches over to Derek, Char’s ex-boyfriend who recently dumped her sans explanation. Emma tells Derek that Char deserves much better than him and he needs to go beg her for forgiveness and provide her with an explanation for the break-up. Derek just nods in agreement to Emma’s scolding, unable to tell anyone that he had to break up with Char due to Alec’s blackmail.

Meanwhile, Sutton’s parents are at the country club chatting about Sutton’s recent behavior. The two run into Rebecca, who appears to be signing up for a club membership. Ted takes off while Kristen sits and chats with Rebecca briefly. Kristen asks her if she knows of any California getaways that she and Ted could take. Rebecca tells Kristen of a few locations but lies about never being to Santa Barbara when Kristen asks about that specific location.

After school, Emma is at tennis practice and notices a man watching her. She storms out of practice and approaches the man. As it turns out, the man is a tennis coach and recruiter from Texas Sutter North University, or TSNU. Unknown to Emma, Sutton had previously met the recruiter, but showed no interest in his offering.

On the other hand, Emma swoons over the thought of going to college on a full ride and is excited about the opportunity that she could potentially get an offer from TSNU. The coach invites Sutton to come and visit the school and meet with the Admissions Office and other tennis coaches. Emma gladly accepts the offer and is excited by the thought of college. She also realizes that going to college on Sutton’s name may pull Sutton out of the woodwork.

After much thinking, however, Emma decides that she can’t keep up the Sutton façade and lie her way into college. Ethan even asserts that Emma could probably get to college on her own means. She decides to go to the police with the situation for fear that Sutton may be a danger to society or even dead. Ethan supports her decision and the two of them decide to first tell Ethan’s brother, a local police officer, of the circumstances.

When Ethan and Emma arrive at Ethan’s home, they are surprised to see Dan talking to Alec. Ethan and Emma decide to hold off on telling Dan their secret because they can’t trust Alec, who appears to be in cahoots with Dan.

“Something’s not right here,” Emma reasons.

After overhearing parts of Dan and Alec’s conversation, they believe that Derek is somehow involved. Ethan and Emma meet up with Thayer and ask why his father would be talking to Dan. Thayer agrees it is suspicious and is unable to figure out why his father would be at Dan’s home.

Ethan decides to ask his brother why Alec would want to talk to him at their home. Dan explained that he owes Alec his life. When Dan was younger, a girl overdosed on prescription drugs at a party he was at. The death of the rich, popular girl was pinned on him, although he was innocent. Alec, the District Attorney, made the situation go away.

Meanwhile, Thayer asks his own father why he was involved with Derek.
“I just have a soft spot for the underdog,” Alec replied.

Emma and Ted head to Texas to visit TSNU. While touring the campus, she confesses to Sutton’s father that Alec sometimes scares her. Ted is bewildered by the claim and defended Alec by saying that Sutton’s godfather would never do anything to hurt her.

At night, Emma has a dream where she sees Sutton in a dark forest. She follows Sutton to a door. Beyond the door is a graveyard, with Sutton’s gravestone sitting right in the front. Ted awakes her from the nightmare and tells her to get ready for her big day.

After she gets ready, Emma goes to talk to the head tennis coach. Sutton claims that she’s had a change in attitude, and that she is no longer a mean girl (obviously picking up the slack for her twin sister). Randy, the recruiter tells Ted that Sutton can compete at the college level, but questions whether or not her heart is in it.

Back in Arizona, Laurel waits for Justin, who is late for their latte date. She sees him walking with another member of the golf team and runs up to him. She asks if everything is okay between the two of them. Justin, who is acting very peculiar, breaks up with Laurel on the spot. Laurel throws the lattes she was holding at him and storms away.

Emma nervously prepares for her Admissions interview. Ted tells her that he’s so proud of her and that it has been a “joy to raise her.” While Emma goes in to her interview, Alec calls Ted to see how Sutton is doing. Ted says that Sutton is great, but Alec needs to lighten up the next time he sees her. Alec cuts his conversation with Ted short and picks up another incoming call. Dan tells Alec that Ethan overheard their conversation the other night.

After the breakup, Laurel cries to her mother, sobbing and thinking that Justin’s actions were seemingly unprovoked. Her mother tries to console her and reasons that maybe the two of them were moving too fast. Laurel still deems the situation unfair.

During her interview, the admissions counselor remarks that Sutton has really turned her grades around. Emma discloses that for a while she was just coasting through life, taking things for granted, but suddenly things changed. She claims she got a second chance in life after seeing new hope and becoming aware of her new surroundings. She feels like she’s in a dream and would do anything to have the dream for just one more day. Emma’s reflection seemed to impress the counselor.

After her meeting, Emma and Ted return home to Phoenix. Kristen tells Emma that Justin broke up with Laurel and Emma immediately runs to see her.

Laurel tells Emma that she was so blindsided by her breakup but thinks that it may have something to do with their father. Emma agrees that the situation is perplexing and suggests that Laurel talk to her father about it.

Laurel tries to confront Justin in an effort to get some answers but he refuses to talk to her. She reaches the conclusion that he is hiding something from her and thinks that he may be seeing someone else. Justin leaves Laurel and heads up to his room, where he angrily kicks a box. The box falls to the floor, revealing an autopsy report.

Later that night, Ethan and Sutton are sitting around a campfire at Ethan’s place. Emma discusses with Ethan what would happen if she could just take over Sutton’s life in the event that her twin is actually dead. Emma disregards the thought and asserts that her moral compass was off.

Thayer approaches the two with big news. He tells them that he’s pretty sure Sutton is dead and he thinks that her biological mother killed her. He explained that their biological mother was living in a psych ward. A week ago, the same time as Sutton’s disappearance, the twins’ biological mother, Annie Hobbes, broke out of the psych ward she was staying at. He continues to say that perhaps Annie never wanted to be found and when Sutton secretly visited her in the psych ward, Annie snapped. She broke out and sought to kill the only person who ever discovered her in her prison.

Emma and Ethan agree that Thayer’s scenario makes sense. The three of them mourn Sutton’s death and Emma says that she needs to go inform Sutton’s family of the circumstances. The three of them head over to the Mercer residence and find that no one is home. They sit down and reminisce about Emma’s unique twin. As they continue to grieve their loss, Sutton walks in through the back door. Ethan, Emma and Thayer are all in shock when they see her.

Where has Sutton been this whole time and what evil intentions does she have up her sleeve for her vulnerable sister?